Operation Smalltalk

Narrator: Xenon

Alert: Signal Received from Unit 1639374. Shipment Damaged. Locating…

…Location Found 47॰54’01”N 123॰06’54”W

…Activating Shipment Security Drones

Drone 1: Compromised 

Drone 2: Compromised

Drone 3: Weapons failure, Hull failure. Propulsion systems online. Camera systems online, connecting feed…

Drone 4: Compromised 

The screen jumped from displaying green text on a black background to a video feed. Xenon grumbled. But he did his work, analyzing the feed. The Drone flitted to life, leaving its storage area on the back of the V-Tek standard high-security transport hovercraft. It raised into the air, most of its camera’s view obscured by smoke. 

3 Hostiles detected… the computer overlayed text onto the screen. There were in fact three capes surrounding the transport, which was on its side, it’s back doors wrent open. Looked like an explosion. His tinker power began feeding him designs, ways he could duplicate the effect given time and resources, gasses he could concoct. Not important right now, he brushed the thought aside. One of the capes was instantly identifiable. Crimson, body covered in red and black banners, as matching ones were strewn around the battlefield moving and twisting with incredible strength. 

Xenon sighed, pressing a button on his console.“Update warning level to Red Alert. Inform Gold immediately and scramble the squadron.” This was, of course, where Xenon’s work began and ended. He was still a cape, so he dealt with the low-level alerts and threats. But he wasn’t much for direct combat scenarios, and his tinker specialty wasn’t exactly in high demand. It was gasses, for the record. Get it. Xenon? He was proud of that name, far cooler than many of his more boring cousins, siblings, and V-Tek employees. Katy had chosen Palladium. Seriously? 

Either way, he had no further responsibility. But he had been distracted from his tinkering, and this video might prove useful for a little more inspiration. Smoke? He’d done some work with invisible gasses but maybe something that could get rid of multiple senses? Sight, touch, hearing, smell. MHmmm. He tucked that into his “to-do” pocket. 

Back in the video Crimson was fighting another cape. No! Two. Crimson’s flunky Arc had run off to fight a cape with a metal mask and business suit. She was wielding a stolen gun. Not one of his make, but it was clearly V-Tek. A revolver. Oh, must be one of Zinc’s ultra-fusioners. Hope she knows not to let it overcharge. Well if she had it, she probably stole it, which meant she  was probably a villain and then it wasn’t his job to take care of her. He chuckled. Maybe she would let it overcharge.

On the other side of the battlefield though, a boy in a white and red bodysuit was honest to god fighting Crimson. Oh, he got pummeled. Oh well. How long till the busybodies get to him? 5 minutes? Too short, too bad. Rest In Peace little- Oh wait! He got up and ran! Haha!

He went to a nearby gas station and… blew himself up? 

Wait. No. He had some kind of invulnerability. He was flying up, up into the air!

Xenon kept watching the feed, concocting a couple useful notes but mostly just enjoying the show. Eventually Crimson and Arc ran off with the supplies while the rest of the V-Tek A-Team were still minutes away from the scene. Xenon has his drone follow the kid though. He was interested. 

He found him in an alley, talking to the girl with the stolen gun. He made sure to pilot the drone quietly, and get to an angle on a roof so that he could see them, but they couldn’t see him. No sense ruining the moment.

“Computer. Identify.”

“Identifying…” it zoomed into both of their faces.

“Failure.” A red X and an angry buzz covered the girl's metal mask. “No matches on record.”

The boy’s was still loading…

Loading…

Identity found. Ragdoll. Student at Hyperion High. Sophomore. Breaker 5. Civilian identity: Amir Assaf. An image of Ragdoll’s costume appeared on the screen, taken from the front, as well as a couple of recents from his instagram and his yearbook photo. 

“Do we have audio?” Xenon asked the computer.

“Microphone compromised.”

Hmmm. He could only barely tell that the two were talking from where the drone was perched. Then he had a thought. He typed a command into the computer.

Students at Hyperion High -> Property of V-Tek -> the Osmium Project. 

Identity found. Osmium. Student at Hyperion High. Junior. Brute/Blaster 4, Breaker. Civilian Identity: CLASSIFIED.

“Computer, I am adding a mission request for Agent 1554, Osmium. He is to make conversation with Hyperion High student Ragdoll, and extract from him any and all information relevant to the events of…” he looked to the calendar, “June 21st, 2023, and the identity of the unidentified cape in the drone recording. Once the drone is recovered, send the mission and the video file in its entirety to Agent 1554, Osmium.”

“Understood.” The computer responded in its synthetic voice. 

“How long until our squadron arrives?” 

“Estimated 2 minutes.”

He looked back to the recording. The metal-masked cape waved a goodbye to Ragdoll, and then skipped away deeper into the alley. Smart. She wouldn’t want to be here when his cousins arrived. 

He piloted the drone to follow her, but he knew from experience that any practiced villain could find a way to leave unseen. It was not to his surprise when she disappeared down another alleyway and couldn’t be found once Xenon’s drone turned the corner. He even smiled. He had an excuse to get Osmium to talk to someone. 

Narrator: Osmium

Hyperion High was an interesting school. It sat adjacent to the other major landmarks of Halcyon City, in the central mall complex at its heart. Chief among them was Legacy Park, of course. An enormous public works project where statues of superheroes dominated the landscape. Some fallen, many still working. The tallest, most central were the statues of the Vanguard, surrounding City Hall itself. To the right side of the Park, across the street and the train station, was the school. It wasn’t an ordinary high school, not exactly. It had a curriculum specifically for Capes, parahumans. A large part of its students were either already part of the Wards program or planning on joining at a nebulous point in the future. There were many students who were not though. Joining the program wasn’t mandatory and the order from on high was that it was better for parahumans to have a safe place during childhood than not. Even if some students did turn villain or rogue, they’d be a known quantity when they did.

The school was beautiful. Marble walls and floors. The Main administrative building had gold finishes. The entire campus was alight with white and gold. The colors of the city. Or at least, of this more well-to-do quarter. Students flitted about in the hallways and yards. Ultimately speaking there weren’t that many of us. I’d heard there were more parahumans in Halcyon City than anywhere else, and that didn’t seem inaccurate to me. I’d estimate maybe half of all parahuman children in Halcyon City went to Hyperion High. There were only ever about 1000 students at a time, much smaller than any of the five local high schools in Halcyon City. Notably Victor Schwab High had around 5000 students at any given time. 

Not every student was-strictly speaking-a parahuman. But it was a lot easier to get in if you were. Getting into the Cape business without powers was tough, although admittedly there were also some students who came with an artifact. Items that held power rather than the people themselves. I was kind of a special case, too but that wasn’t important. 

I came to school in my costume, as the students did. School policy was strict about concealing civilian identities and even the most public capes either had to wear a domino mask or sign a waiver to appear without one. My costume was special though, bulky power armor which made me both obvious and impressive. I walked as I always did. With precision, professionalism, purpose. Exoskeletal back always straight. Shoulders up. Looking directly forward, or down to face someone if I was addressing them. I’d cheated a little, installing a walk cycle into my exoskeleton so that it would automatically adjust my gait and posture. My actual legs weren’t doing any of the work anyway. 

That was part of my job here. I was the only employee of Victor Schwab Technologies, V-Tek for short, who was actively enrolled in Hyperion High. I was the only one young enough to be. My armor made me stand almost 8 feet tall and about twice as wide as the average student. It made getting into classrooms sometimes difficult. In other words, I was easily noticeable. It meant I had to project the image, I had to be the face of V-Tek on this campus. The pristine, shining hero in tinkertech armor to inspire as many of my fellow students as possible to sign up for recruitment opportunities when those came to pass. Also, to show up for myself. Osmium. That’s the name I was given. The densest chemical element. Unbreakable.

Right now, I walked with added purpose. I had a mission. I wasn’t just walking to class. I turned a corner putting my right foot down and then turning exactly 90 degrees at the exact middle of the aisle, and making sure to politely step out of the way of anyone in my path. Most people got out of my way anyway. Like I said, I was easily noticeable. Xenon was the one who usually gave me missions, or maintenance, or signatures for field-trip waivers. He managed low-level projects like mine. He wasn’t exactly the most professional. It was something the others disliked about him, a reason he was kept out of the spotlight. He didn’t really seem to care. It’s mostly just that he got bored. 

My mission was simple. Extract information from a fellow student. Ragdoll. I needed everything he had on a thief he’d interacted with who’d stolen V-Tek equipment. He’d let the assailant go, which was extremely unprofessional and ill-fitting for a hero.

Forward strategy was to find Ragdoll, and ask him about the encounter. Discretion was key. He probably knew that the attack was on a V-Tek transport. Being confronted directly by the V-Tek cape at Hyperion might seem threatening. Not that Ragdoll couldn't stand up to threats. He’d fought a very powerful cape a couple of days ago. The analysts were still trying to figure out if Crimson was trying to take all of the supply. Did he succeed in taking only some of it, or fail at taking all of it? Either way, not all of it was gone and that could be perceived as a victory! It was also good PR for Ragdoll. It wasn’t his first major cape fight but it was his first against someone as powerful as Crimson. He was having a good couple days and I didn’t want to ruin that. 

He was a good standing hero, deserving of his position. No, I had to come in from a more casual approach. Now that I thought about it, I’m sure a lot of people asked him about the fight in the last couple of days. I didn’t have much info on Ragdoll other than interacting with him a few times. From those times, he did seem like the kind of person to boast. He had posted a bit about it on Kape but he hadn’t said anything too conclusive. 

It wasn't uncommon for capes to not directly talk about fights. Extenuating circumstances. Sometimes it was better to talk vaguely. Although that was true for a lot of things in PR. Not that all capes were super knowledgeable about that, especially not capes my age. 

Either way, inquiring would be a decent enough starting point.  I just needed to act like a normal student and maybe get him to admit something later once conversation had taken it’s course. 

I walked into the cafeteria where most of the school was having lunch. My footfalls were heavy, and people turned to look as I entered before going back to their routines. Even at a high school for superheroes I was something of an oddity. Tinkers weren't that, rare but exosuits were generally seen more on the field than in training. There were a couple of tinkers that went to Halcyon High, on the short list for hiring at V-Tek though I hadn’t been ordered to approach them about it yet. Needless to say, I was the only student in a huge set of power armor.

The room was dotted with capes in different costumes, a technicolor array far brighter and more diverse than the average school. A lot of people had spandex, but many had light armor that they still had on, or bulkier suits for different purposes. Some people had helmets sitting on tables or chairs so they could actually eat. Some had costumes that amounted to stylized clothing and domino masks. My sensor immediately began scanning them, recognizing a dozen faces and masks and pairing them with data from the base. Familiar faces all. Seance from out of town. Contraband, the rebel. Earworm was smiling and waving at me. I might go greet her if not for the mission. A good example of a simple costume, just a jumpsuit and a mask under a theatrical costume. I think she was a cowboy today? My eyes found the quarry before I did. Kaleidoscope’s bright orange and green hair was noticeable from anywhere in the room, and Ragdoll always sat with her at lunch. Her costume also helped, a technicolor coat covered in bright contracting patches. I bet if I saw her on the street, out of costume, I would recognize her. Not that I would, officially, of course. Even if she did a bad job at hiding her civilian identity it was my responsibility to keep those lives separate.

Ragdoll’s costume did a good job at that. A skintight jumpsuit which completely covered his body. In order to eat, he pulled the neck section of his costume up from where it split with the chest and tucked it above his nose so that his neck and mouth were both visible. His tanned skin made me think he was probably middle eastern. Not that it was any of my business.

I approached, the two noticed me about a minute before I got there. They stopped whatever conversation they were having to look up at me. Kaleidoscope and Ragdoll both gave me weird looks. They continued as I awkwardly, slowly pulled up a chair and sat in it. The weight probably would have bent the chair if I’d actually put any on it, instead locking my exoskeletal joints in a squat right above it. The silence continued as I took a second to formulate my thoughts.

“Hey, whaddup my man?” Ragdoll cut right through the tension. He put out a hand for a shake. I went along with it. He ended the shake and went for a fist bump. My reaction time was a second too late making the bump land awkwardly. It didn’t seem to bother him.

“So, what’s our favorite, maybe sorta kinda robot guy doing at my table?” He smiled. The official V-Tek position on what I was was that it was classified. So I’d gone along with the robot rumor spread by a couple of my classmates. It was convenient. Besides if I said something awkward or weird, maybe they’d just assume it was a fault in my programming.

“I’m here to ask about the events of July 18th, 2023. I, umm, heard you got into a fight.” When it came out of the suit’s speakers my stammering had been erased. Any umms or uhs in my speech pattern got filtered out. 

“Oh, you wanna hear about the fight huh big guy? Y’know I bet you’ve seen a bunch of videos online but there’s nothing like it happening for real. I was fighting for my life bro.” He was still smiling and excited as he said it, starting to gesticulate with his hands.

“You bet!” I said, “I want to hear your story.”

“Alright, Alright, Alright.” he launched into a story. “So it went down like this!”

He repeated the elements of the story that I’d already observed. He was on patrol. He heard an explosion, the fight with Crimson. Seeing Arc and a mysterious masked cape wearing a suit. She had  a piece of tinkertech that she’d stolen from us. He’d very clearly exaggerated a couple of things like saying that Crimson had somehow caused the gas explosion that rocketted him into the air, which was a falsehood. You could see in the video that he’d used a lighter to do it. Maybe he was trying to avoid paying damages? To be fair to him, I had no reason to doubt that the rest of the story was real. The part about him flying over the city was particularly cool. Useful info? I asked myself. Probably not. But cool! He finished off with saying that Arc confronted him.

“Yeah yeah yeah, And he said ‘we’ll getcha next time.’ and he disappeared like that. So y'know, made two of the scariest villains in the city run hiding. Y'know just a little thing. Regular Tuesday for me, don’t feel too embarrassed for asking.”

“What happened with the girl?” I asked.

“oH oh oh yeah! This is the best part man!” He went on with even more enthusiasm, somehow. “Ok so listen right. I thought they were all gone, that they ran off right? I’m looking around right? And she's a teleporter so I thought she probably just left the scene. But I decided to check around. And then boom. She shows up. And I’m all like, woah. And she’s all like ‘I’ll shoot you’ and I’m all cocky like ‘Do it’ because I know I can take it. You know how my power works right?”

“Yeah , I’ve seen you on Kape.”

“Shout out man! Anyway yeah she shoots me and it bounces right off. And she started laughing.”

Kaleidoscope spoke up, finger gunning at Ragdoll. “Cause you’ve got the rizz.”

“Cause I’ve got the rizz.” Ragdoll nodded, pointing at Kaleidoscope. 

“The rizz?” I asked. 

“Yeah he’s got the rizz.” Kaleidoscope responded unhelpfully.

“Anyway,” Ragdoll spread his hands again. “She was all like. ‘Aw man that’s pretty cool.’ And I was all like ‘Pretty poggers right.’ And she was all like ‘Hey what’s your name, cutie?’ And I was all like ‘Ragdoll. Friends call me Ragsy.’” 

Kaleidoscope used her power, creating a copy of Ragdoll across from him, on the other side of the table, to act as the thief. 

“And she was all like ‘Dammnnnnn Ragdoll you got the moves. Hey, call me Karma. I got some sick nasty shit I can do too. Here’s my number.’ And I was all like ‘Here’s mine, let’s text XOXO baby.’” 

He pronounced the letters ‘exs’ ‘oh’ Oh, and this story was ridiculous. Seriously, openly bragging about flirting with a supervillain? Why did Xenon even send me here. What made it out of my suits speakers was, “Did this…Karma say anything else?” 

“Eh, man, are you gonna let me finish my story? Like I was saying. We got each other’s numbers. We kept talking. She showed off her power. I thought it was just teleportation, but it isn’t. She, like, goes into another universe or something, then pops back here. Or at least that’s what she said to me. She was all ‘pew pew’ and then ‘whoosh’ and then ‘bang.’” 

“I heard in passing that Karma had a firearm, is that right?” Ragdoll looked up at me. 

“Man, you don’t have to ask questions like you're a cop. You can just say that you're curious about my cool story.”

What? No, my efforts at keeping the conversation professional backfired. Does he suspect this has something to do with V-Tek? Well he hasn’t said anything. 

“Anyway yeah she had a tinkertech gun. It was all glowy and shit. Charged up and then shot fire. Looked really nice and well maintained too. Oh, and I think it had a logo somewhere, I think it was a V?…OH SHIT.” Ragdoll made the realization just as I was hoping he wouldn’t. It didn’t help that he yelled loud enough for the cafeteria to hear it. 

“Bro, Bro are you here cause she jacked your shit? Man I’m sorry, fuck. I didn’t even notice that. I promise we’re tight alright it’s-“ I cut him off, I’d already failed that part of the mission, but there was no sense in antagonizing Ragdoll. He actually deserved to be here. 

“Don’t worry. It’s… You did well. You aren’t in any trouble. I just wanted to get more information about this mystery cape who we suspected of stealing V-Tek property. This isn’t an interrogation and I’m not here to arrest you.”

 “You can arrest me?” 

“No, that’s not…” I grunted and the voice synthesizer didn’t transmit it. “Look, you said you had her number, do you have any other way of finding or contacting her?” Ragdoll was apologetic, almost looked scared for a second. But then a big smile crossed his face. 

“Ahhh. Oh man I see how it is. Ok, ok you want me to be your wingman. Good guy works for V-Tek, Bad Girl steals from V-Tek. Sparks. I can see it. You want to put me in touch, I’ll play matchmaker for ya’.” 

“What? No. I’m not interested in Karma romantically, I just need to-“

“You don’t need to explain yourself bro I was just messing with you.” He shot back. “Anyway. Point is I think I can get you to a meetup. But we gotta promise no fighting, no powers, no bullshit. I don’t want that on my hands, man. Besides I still owe her one for saving my ass against Crimson.” 

“That’s… acceptable. Thank you.” I immediately pushed back the chair and stood up to leave, when Ragdoll sat up in his chair. 

“What you came to talk about her and now you’re just walking away. Not even gone let me finish my story. Cmon this is an exclusive.” He was inviting me to sit down. I had no conflicting orders from my superiors. I calculated for a second. It would be more beneficial to have a positive relationship with Ragdoll if and when this negotiation with Karma went through. It’s also not like I had anything better to do, or anyone else willing to invite me to sit. So I did. Ragdoll launched back into his story, but I mostly stopped asking questions and just accepted it, instead using my time to parse usable information from nonsense. Kaleidoscope took the opportunity to re-enter the conversation after mostly letting me and Ragdoll talk. The two of them had a good dynamic. It was easy for them to bounce conversations off of each other and there weren’t many places where I could butt in, not that I wanted to. It was pleasant.